Fleet Car Insurance: Could It Work for You?

Fleet Car Insurance could Work out Cheaper than Individual Vehicle Quotes
It seems as though motorists have been running away from an avalanche of rising insurance prices for the last few years. Early 2012 is looking to add even more snow to the financial crush but for businesses operating multiple company vehicles – there could be chance of rescue in the form of cheaper fleet insurance.

The average price of a comprehensive insurance policy increased by 4.9% in 2011, according to a report in the Metro. Third-party fire and theft policies suffered an even larger incline at 10.2%. Many businesses would be caught up in paying these expensive insurance prices for each individual company car but the savvier business people would have conversed with a broker, who then would have negotiated a discounted deal for all vehicles on the same policy.

Quality fleet insurance deals are designed specifically to cover business vehicles under one blanket policy. It is convenient as much as it is financially sound – the brokers pride themselves on seeking the best value for money policies and have the contacts to do so.

As with most products in this world – buying in bulk often means there is a discount involved. Insuring a fleet of business cars in this way just makes perfect sense. Plus, further discounts could be available through the rapidly improving fleet telematics software, which is now being integrated into certain insurance policies.

The reintroduction of telematics software...
Telematics: The combination of telecommunications and ICT, often applied to remote objects (vehicles) for real-time data monitoring.

Telematics software has previously been used by trucking firms, to track the activity of their vehicles in order to maximise efficiency. Data such as vehicle speed, fuel consumption and GPS location are all sent directly to the headquarters where the supervisors can ensure drivers are sticking to company procedure.

With insurers adopting the technology, drivers can be quoted purely on their driving behaviour – instead of being pigeonholed into a certain demographic group. It is a much fairer way of quoting motorists and it is of particular benefit to businesses running a fleet.

Ian Faulkner, Managing Director at one of the companies developing telematics software, commented on the technology in May 2011, explaining that he expects at least 70% of drivers to have at least tried telematics within the next five years and that it is the brokers who can help people acquire the sophisticated software.

Faulkner highlighted how brokers work with clients and will go through any concerns about the software in order to explain the reasons for quote values. This is contrary to the aggregators who will simply provide a blank price.

Brokers are expecting an influx of business from companies seeking discounted fleet car insurance deals and with further discount potentially available through the integration of telematics software, business people look to be in for a much nicer year in 2012.